


luigi's mansion and rainbow road

by violetisloud



Category: Diary of a Future President (TV)
Genre: M/M, also someone teach bobby who rbg is, bobby and danielle are bros, mario kart as a therapy tool, more bobby x self-acceptance than anything else, the title makes sense i swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:34:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25000219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetisloud/pseuds/violetisloud
Summary: Bobby really didn’t have much of a choice, so that was how he ended up in a beat-up blue Subaru, and later the apartment of two late 20s lesbians playing Mario Kart. And Danielle was kicking his butt.
Relationships: Bobby Cañero-Reed & Danielle, Bobby Cañero-Reed & Elena Cañero-Reed, Bobby Cañero-Reed & Liam Carter, Bobby Cañero-Reed/Liam Carter
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47





	luigi's mansion and rainbow road

**Author's Note:**

> i love bobby that's all! follow me on twitter @violetisloud

Bobby was a man of action rather than words. That made him the polar opposite of his younger sister. While Elena could ask the ice cream shop employee interrogation level questions about the flavor palette of each type of ice cream and sorbet they sold, Bobby would much rather ask for a medium strawberry cone and be on his way. When Elena described what she had planned for the day over Sam-bled eggs, she basically spoke a novel. Bobby’s plans could be summed up in emojis if it had to be. Elena liked words like ‘glorious’ and ‘mellifluous’ and ‘treacherous’ (seemed like a lot of ‘ous’). Bobby had an unspoken philosophy of the fewer syllables, the better. The contrast must give his mother a migraine. But nonetheless, he sets out to do something, and then he does it. Point A to Point B. A man of action.

But not this time. Nope. Somehow he was no longer a man of actions or words or anything as he remained flopped on his bed staring at the glow-in-the-dark constellation stickers. Sleeping was an option, as it was what most of the Eastern Time Zone was doing at whatever time it was. (He checked on his phone and while blinded by the brightness, found out it was 2:17 AM. Crap). It seemed like all he could do was think. And he didn’t want to anymore. He didn’t want to think about how he totally chickened out on talking to Liam, or the way that Liam danced with Jada, or the way that Liam smiled, or the way that Liam could see through his facade of ~chill~ in about three seconds flat when even Bobby couldn’t do that to himself or the hairdresser’s family photo. And he certainly felt dizzy at how easily the two trains of thought intersected. 

He half-talked to Sam about it. But even then it was all vague and easily warped and he probably thought Bobby was talking about Monyca anyway. Camila would ask again if she could watch RuPaul with him (some Googling revealed that his show wasn’t actually NASCAR). His mom would pull out another sex-ed binder and thoroughly mortify him. So, unfortunately, it seemed like his only remaining option was-

“Elena, can we talk?” Bobby couldn’t even believe he ended up in her doorway in the middle of the night/morning. She was up late with some book about Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her reading chair, her hair piled at the top of her head, her lips pursed, and a pen in hand (was she taking notes on a book she was reading for ‘fun’? How were they related?). Elena jerked her head up sharply. “Do you know what time it is?” she hissed. “Do you know what time it is?” he hissed back. He seemed to have beaten her on that front. 

She placed the book down on her side table. “What can I help you with?” she asked because of course she would sound like a professor in the middle of Bobby's crisis. “You figured out all of your Sasha and Jessi drama, right?” he asked. She nodded. “Could you help me with mine?” She nodded more ferociously. The silence sat between them for a moment before Bobby realized she expected him to talk first. He was off to a great start. “I broke up with Monyca.” Elena’s jaw fell. “Why?” she whined, “You guys were so cute, I thought it was meant to be.”

“What do you know about ‘meant to be’? You haven’t even finished the 6th grade.” Bobby scoffed. Elena’s face softened. “I know that when you’re around the person you’re meant to be with and it hasn’t happened yet, you feel somehow better and worse at the same time. Like there are fireworks in your stomach or something.” Her eyes looked dreamy and far away. Bobby felt nauseated. “I know that you somehow remember everything about them, their favorite color, their allergies, their favorite flower so it can be in the arrangements you use at your wedding.” she sighed. “At least that’s how I feel about Joey Feldstein.” she shrugged after a moment. 

“Was that the extent of your crisis? Breaking up with Monyca with a Y?” she asked. Bobby held his breath. “Yeah, I guess it is.”  
“Are you sure?” Elena asked, raising her eyebrows. “Yeah, it doesn’t even matter.” he brushed off. “Are you totally sure?” she asked again. “It’s fine, Elena. I don’t even know what I was thinking.” Bobby’s face was hot. “Go back to reading about the first female secretary of state or something.”  
“That was Madeline Albright.”  
“Whatever.”

And yet Bobby was up at 2:30 AM the next night. And the next. And after a week his circadian rhythm was totally screwed up, Sam and his mom thought he was a vampire, and Elena was staring daggers at him across the table to try and get him to budge. It was exhausting but Bobby didn’t know what else he could do. If he told one person that would make the reality of the situation unavoidable. And the reality was that not everyone was chill with what he was becoming more and more sure that he was. And he would probably have to keep telling people forever because they would assume stuff. And if he told Elena, she would meddle and somehow ruin everything even more. 

And then the universe aligned in an unlikely way.

“Camila, where are you?” Bobby grumbled into the phone, waiting on the bench outside of the tennis courts. “You said you’d pick me up from camp half an hour ago.”  
“Robertico, your mother has delegated me with figuring out the seating chart for some fundraiser the firm is having and I am realizing that literally everyone in this office has beef with each other,” Camila said on the other end of the line. “I am going to be here for a while, I’m sorry.” Bobby sighed, grabbing his bag. “It’s fine, I can walk.” he started to say before Camila interjected with “I know! Danielle can pick you up and you can hang at our place, is that ok?” 

Bobby really didn’t have much of a choice (unless he wanted heat stroke from waiting any longer), which is how he ended up in a beat-up blue Subaru and later the apartment of two late 20s lesbians playing Mario Kart. And Danielle was kicking his butt. “Ugh, unfair!” he tossed the controller aside and flopped backward. “I suck at Wario’s Gold Mine.”  
“Maybe it’s not the track’s fault, considering you also said that for Coconut Mall and Luigi’s Mansion,” Danielle smirked, tucking a piece of her short hair back behind her ear after it fell in the heat of the game. “Maybe Yoshi is just better than you, or better yet, I’m just better than you!” she cried with her face in a wide-open grin. “Only Bowser’s Castle can tell.”

Bowser’s Castle did tell. And whether it was Bobby’s fault or Toad’s fault, Danielle won again. And she was doing a victory dance in the kitchen while making grilled cheeses and singing “4 for 4! 4 for 4!” It was kind of hard not to laugh. “Alright, you are the reigning Mario Kart legend, we get it.” Bobby threw his hands up in surrender. “But I’m not bad at it, you’re just abnormally good.” he justified. Danielle looked dubious as she placed the plates on the table. “Oh really?” she asked. “Totally, Liam plays as Baby Mario and-” Bobby cut himself off. He had almost forgotten about the disaster with school letting out and everything. He and Liam hadn’t actually talked through what happened to the dance, and other than the group chat sending TikToks, they hadn’t texted either. But Danielle didn’t know that, so she asked: 

“Oh, how is Liam? I don’t think I ever met him, but your french-fry trifecta is legendary.” Bobby was trying to find the right words to deflect and say that things were rocky or things were fine and he just needed space or things were alright or things were wonderful, thanks for asking. “Bobby? Hello?” Danielle was now sitting right next to him, waving her hands like she was directing traffic. “How’s Liam-”  
“I think I like him.”

Bobby knew that he had a habit of getting locked in places, but this time he locked himself in the bathroom of the apartment. His plan was to just sit on the edge of the bathtub until his mom came and get out of the situation completely. But that started getting uncomfortable after 10 minutes. So after another 4 minutes of internal debate and raking his hands through his hair, he opened the door to the bathroom and went back to the couch. It turns out Danielle hadn’t moved or eaten either of the sandwiches. 

“So,” she said, jaw set but face gentle. Obviously she knew a thing or two about the subject at hand. “Do you want to talk this through or play another game or a combination of both?”  
“Both.” Bobby nodded. “Definitely both.”

And that is how Bobby ended up spilling his guts about everything while also getting totally destroyed at Mario Kart. In Waluigi Stadium he talked about how uncomfortable the thought of doing all of the bases of the different cities with Monyca made him, especially Palo Alto 1st (sharing your truth). In Sunshine Airport Bobby asked how to tell his Mom, and in Delfine Square Danielle talked about how she knew to move in with Camila. It didn’t feel tense or forced or scary. They fell into a rhythm of speaking genuinely and overzealous trash talk. And she was really helpful. Far more helpful than the rabbit hole of quizzes Bobby had fallen down the night after the tennis tournament (more like the storage room tournament) in Jupiter, and the overwhelming articles with psychology vocab words. Danielle was a living, breathing example. A woman of action.

After a while, they both put the controllers down and Bobby looked her in the eyes again. Something was different than earlier. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked. “I don’t know, you look lighter.” she shrugged. “You know, this is the most I’ve ever heard you talk at one time.” she half laughed. “Yeah, I usually leave that to Elena, she does plenty.” Bobby looked back at the controller. “Danielle, am I going to be okay?” he asked, not looking up at her. “I don’t know, Camila’s parents don’t know you’re together and my best friends still think that I’m in love with my ex-girlfriend and Liam might freak and it’s just a lot. There’s a lot that could go wrong.” Bobby’s voice shook a little and he didn’t like it. 

“Bobby, it’s really not a race.” Danielle responded after a moment. “You started today. It was hard and you took a pitstop in my bathroom, but it was a start.” She grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight, and Bobby looked back at her. “You are absolutely, without a doubt, going to be okay.” They sat there for a while. 

“You know what is a race though?” Danielle said, her voice hushed. Then she grabbed a controller. “Mario Kart.” Bobby let out a laugh from his gut. He took a deep breath, wiped his eyes. “Want to play Rainbow Road?” he asked, and this time Danielle cackled. “Metaphorical or literal?” she asked. “Both. Definitely both.”

Camila would come home and ask what the pair did that afternoon. Gabi would ask the same thing when picking up Bobby and taking him home that evening. Both Camila and Gabi could sense something was up, but neither pried past shared glances and rapid-fire whispered Spanish about if they had set off the smoke alarms. Elena was nosy when he walked through the door, and he made a mental note to tell her soon. But it wasn’t a race. Danielle was like a guru or something. And that night, Bobby slept. Not astronomically better or worse. He just slept. He was once again, a man of action.


End file.
